Random Cricket Photos Post 84





#RandomCricketPhotosThatMakeMeHappy

This is Dean Jones from the 1986 Madras Test enroute a memorable 210 in cricket's only second Tied Test. Such was the impact of the Madras heat on Jones that he doesn't remember anything post 120 in that knock. In fact, after his innings concluded, Jones had to be administered drips.

This post isn't about Jones though.

This post is about Greg Matthews who doesn't really consider Jones 210 heroic.Whether that's out of personal animosity or what, we will never know. However, as the man who took 10 wickets in the match and eventually bowled the delivery that tied the match for Australia on the second last delivery of the match can be allowed to have an opinion or two.

More so, when unlike Jones who cut a sorry figure in the heat, the off-spinner bowled wearing a half sweater (or a jumper) and a cap in the same Madras heat on the all-important final day of the Test. Yes, you read it right. HALF SWEATER AND A CAP.

Was there any method to the madness? Of course, an Aussie one.

In a later interview, Mathews said, “I just wanted to show the Indians how easy it was. I went to the Indian dressing room and I think that they were all dying. Kris Srikkanth said, ‘Gregie, even the rats are leaving Madras’. So I said wow even they are feeling it, it was our way of saying even we can play in the heat.”

Sadly, apart from a lot of other footage from the 80s, Doordarshan is believed to have lost the tapes of one of the most riveting matches in Test history as well.

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